Old world, new family
by Zerodone
Summary: Set in Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon. After saving the world of the Pokémon once, Zoey finds herself taking on a mother/mentor role for the new human turned into a Pokémon. Unfortunately for the new kid, his mother may appear sane at first, but she has some... bad habits. Like challenging legendary Pokémon and calling it training.
1. Chapter 1

"Hello, darkness my old friend…" Zoey sang to herself, as she started to wake up from her unwanted slumber. Her entire body felt like it had been hit by a truck, which was pretty appropriate, given how she had climbed up a tree and the branch underneath her just randomly decided it could not carry her weight and gave in. The fall had been pretty short, but in all honesty, Zoey herself was surprised that she could still crack jokes like that, after taking a fall like that. By all accounts, she should have at least a concussion or something, maybe a broken bone or two. However, all she could feel were her limbs being sore, as well as having a massive headache.

"That sure hit the spot…" she grumbled. Opening her eyes, she could see it was still daytime, meaning that at least she hadn't missed her curfew as of yet. Ever since a particular incident, where she went missing for months, her parents were rather overbearing on a lot of things. It had taken a lot of convincing and bribery in order to be allowed to go outside on her own for longer than ten minutes.

("I guess I better get up before it gets too late. Ow, it hurts. A lot.") she thought to herself, as she rolled around until she was lying on her stomach. In that position, she slowly put the ends of her four limbs on the ground and pressed herself away from it. However, she experienced a mild case of motion sickness, what with the world seemingly moving on its own around her. She needed to stay in this position for a couple of seconds until her brain recalibrated itself. Now with the world, as it should be, she attempted to get up on her legs, only for the girl to lose balance and fall straight on her stomach, with her arms outstretched.

"Ow…" she complained loudly. "What's up with that?" she asked no one in particular. looking straight ahead, the girl could see her arms from the corners of her vision. Only she found that there appeared to be something awfully wrong about that particular set of limbs. She looked over at them and found it completely covered in brown fur. Bending it a little, she found out that the supposed "arm" did not end up in a hand, as it should be, but rather a paw. The same went for the other one.

"Huh? What?" Getting ever so slightly agitated, she jumped up on all fours. Strangely enough, her back did not complain being in this position at all. It even seemed to be comfortable. And she soon found out why. Looking down on herself, Zoey found out that the only piece of clothing she was wearing was a grey scarf, with a turquoise and pink star on it. The rest of her body was covered in brown fur. Looking back on herself, she confirmed on what she had already seen. She was covered in fur, had now two sets of legs and a tail. The tail was covered in brown fur just like the rest of her body, but it ended up in a white tip.

"Say what?!" she exclaimed, jumping in place. "I'm a Pokémon?! I'm an eevee?! AGAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIN?!" she shouted on top of her lungs. She looked around frantically and in a slightly panicked state. She was at the edge of some kind of forest, with a walking path right next to her. She could hear a waterfall nearby, but neither saw nor heard another Pokémon. This, however, was the least of her concerns. Being turned into a Pokémon wasn't that high on her priority list either. Her parents worrying about her was a close second to what had really put the girl midway into panic mode. Namely-

"WHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?!"

A sudden scream nearby halted her train of thought with a loud screech, as if someone had hit the breaks on the said train very hard. Reacting to the scream, Zoey, now an eevee again, spun around and immediately spotted the source of the scream. About a hundred meters in front of her, she could make out a Pokémon, a small one, walking backward away from a lake. This lake also turned out to be the source of the waterfall sound, as the waterfall was on the other end of the lake. Looking harder, Zoey could identify the Pokémon at the lake. It was a cyndaquill, a hedgehog-like Pokémon, only instead of spikes, it had fire on its back. Well, the fire by this one appeared to be turned off for some reason. Then again, the fire on those things was usually only on, when they were angry or found themselves in a combat situation.

Watching further, Zoey could see that the fire-type appeared to be distraught. He or she (she couldn't tell at this distance) was looking around frantically and then all of the sudden decided to inspect its entire body. He or she looked down on themselves, inspected their "hand-paws", raised a "foot-paw", looked underneath, sniffed... okay, things were getting a little gross now.

("What's the kid doing? He's kinda acting weird. Where are their parents?")

Zoey looked down, contemplating. On the one hand, she just reentered the world of the Pokémon and like last time, it had been completely out of the blue. She had yet to completely digest the situation she found herself in, but it appeared like last time, she wouldn't be able to adjust properly to the situation.

"Ahh!"

The scream once again turned Zoey's attention to the cyndaquill, who was not alone anymore. Indeed, there were three Beheeyem straight up attacking the fire-type.

"What the fuck?!" Zoey exclaimed in surprise and anger. "They're attacking a child!"

The Beheeyem managed to land two more blows on the poor child, before it decided to ran away, namely in the direction of Zoey. The poor dear almost crashed into her, almost. He, Zoey could now make out the signs that showed a Pokémon's gender, managed to hit the metaphorical breaks and stop right in front of the former human. The girl barely glanced at the fire-type, since the three aggressive psychic-types were following the cyndaquill quickly. Zoey couldn't help but roll her eyes.

"I'm not even five minutes back..." she growled and straight up jumped over the child. The cyndaquill crouched on reflex. The eevee landed behind the fire-type without even touching the boy. The only thing he felt was the wind, which followed after Zoey had landed behind him. The fire-type turned around just in time to see his attackers arrive at the scene.

"Hey!" Zoey shouted angrily. "What do you think you're doing, attacking a child?!" she shouted, baring her fangs. ("Beheeyem, psychic-type, three of them and I have no idea what kind of attacks they learn. Oh, and do I know how to use actual attacks?")

The three Beheeyem looked at each other and blinked with some weird blinking lights attached to their arms. After a few blinks, all of them nodded and then formed a half-circle in front of Zoey.

"All or nothing," the girl told herself and then sprinted towards the next best enemy, which turned out to be the right Beheeyem. He had been preparing some kind of attack, however, Zoey's shoulder hit the guy faster than he could even blink. With the Quick Attack successfully executed, Zoey landed on the ground. A small explosion occurred behind her, distracting the eevee. She turned her head around towards where the smoke was rising, only to get hit by a Psybeam. Zoey cringed when she felt the multicolored attack hitting her sides, but didn't do much else. In fact, she turned her head around and got hit in the chest with a multi-colored attack, but it didn't do much either.

"Huh...? That... barely hurt..." the girl wondered aloud. Once again distracted, the Beheeyem, which she had knocked down earlier, got back up and headbutted the normal-type. Zoey's paws rubbed over the ground, getting ever so slightly hot, but once again, nothing else happened.

"Right, fight first, thinking later," the girl told herself and jumped at the next best psychic-type. Two more Psybeams missed her before she managed to dig her teeth into the grey skin of one of the levitating psychic-types. It tasted awful, to say the least. However, seeing as Bite was a dark-move, it proved to be super effective against the Beheeyem. This was shown by its screams of pain and how it quickly tried to shake Zoey off. The former human all too happily let go, just in time as it turned out because both other Beheeyem decided at this point to shoot two more Psybeams. They were quite flustered when they accidentally hit their ally and send him flying into the nearby lake. Zoey didn't notice this. Having received multiple hits already, she didn't allow herself to be distracted again. Old instincts from with herself began to make themselves known again. Zoey opened her mouth, dark energy gathering in front of it. It was like gathering spit for a big spit. Only this spit formed into a Shadow Ball.

"Taaaake, THIS!" she shouted and shot the ball at Beheeyem number 2. Said psychic-type tried to block or even repel the attack with his own Psybeam, however, the Shadow Ball proved to be the stronger attack this time. The beam-lights were repelled by the ball of dark energy ball, which didn't even slow down in the slightest. It hit the Pokémon straight in the face and shot it towards a nearby tree. The tree shook and lost some leaves. The psychic-type slipped down the bark and ungracefully landed on the ground, a few pitiful flashes of light escaping out of its arms.

The third and last Beheeyem blinked angrily and fired yet another Psybeam against Zoey. She tried to dodge via jumping sideways, but her shoulder got hit anyways. It felt like someone had hit her with a slightly warm metal-rod and didn't even hit her hard. ("It... really doesn't hurt as much as I thought it would.")

"Let's try thiiiiiiiiiis!" she shouted with an open mouth. Literal stars came flying out of it and towards the aggressive Pokémon. The Beheeyem managed to dodge and used something else for a change. The eyes of the Beheeyem turned blue and out of nowhere, Zoey could feel a massive headache overcoming her.

"Ow, owowowowowow! Stop it!" she screamed and tried to tackle the enemy, but was way off with her aim, due to the pain she was experiencing. It also didn't help that this Beheeyem turned out to be smarter than the other two and decided to fly into the air while keeping the Confusion coming. Zoey growled and tried to hit her enemy with Swift again, but due to the Beheeyem flying so high at this point, it had more than enough time to react in time and dodge the attack. However, that didn't mean it could see attacks coming from behind. Out of nowhere, multiple small fires hit the levitating psychic-type, not really hurting it, but distracting it. Zoey too looked down for a moment, her headache slowly disappearing and saw that it was the young cyndaquill, using Ember. Smirking to the child, the eevee raised her head, aimed and shot another Swift attack on the Beheeyem, which was currently busy trying to shoot a Psybeam at the poor kid. The attack dissipated into nothing, as soon as the enemy psychic-type got hit by the normal type attack. Zoey smirked in satisfaction as she heard the Beheeyem scream and blink in pain at the same time, as he or she (that one was even harder than Pokémon genders, in general, were already) fell out of the sky and slammed into the ground, causing a dust cloud to rise into the sky.

Zoey took the moment of peace to take a breath and looked down on her right paw. She raised it as if it were a hand and "balled" it, more or less, into a "fist". ("It's like I have never stopped being a Pokémon. Like my level or something carried over.") Shaking her head, Zoey quickly ran over to the downed Pokémon, only to be taken by surprise as it slammed her out of the way, and "ran" for the high hills. A splashing sound indicated the other Beheeyem escaping from the lake and taking its leave as well. As for the third one, it was actually way ahead of the other two.

"Hey, get back here!" Zoey shouted, running a few steps after them, but quickly realized she would never catch up to them. "Damn, I hate it when they run away!" she shouted, slamming her paw to the ground. "Stupid bad guys, how am I supposed to make them suffer if they keep running away?" the former human complained, letting out a huff. The cyndaquill behind her took a careful step backward. Letting out an annoyed sigh, Zoey turned around towards the child.

"Are you alright little guy?" she asked to which for some reason the cyndaquill jumped backward in surprise.

"Whoa, whoa, calm down. I'm not going to hurt you," Zoey tried to calm the Pokémon down. She lowered her head, in order to be at eye level with the cyndaquill and gave the child a worried look. Being so close to his face, she could hear him breathing and he was breathing fast. His tiny heart must be racing a mile per minute or so. "There, there, don't worry. The bad Pokémon are gone. They won't hurt you anymore." That appeared to do the trick. The fire-type calmed down considerably but was still slightly agitated. Zoey found this hardly surprising.

"Are you feeling alright?"

The Pokémon nodded hesitantly.

"That's good to hear." Zoey could also not find any obvious injuries on the child. From the looks of things those three Beheeyem probably thought it would be fun to bully the poor child. "I'm Zoey," the eevee introduced herself. "What's your name?"

"My... name?" the cyndaquill asked, sounding distressed. "I... I am Cid."

"Cid?" Zoey repeated. ("Now that's a name you don't hear every day. Straight out of Final Fantasy. Hey, wait a moment, come to think of it, this is the first Pokémon I have met that doesn't refer to itself by its own species. I guess nicknames aren't as uncommon as I thought.")

"What an unusual name. I thought for sure your name would be cyndaquill." Zoey laughed out loud. "But I guess I'm hardly one to talk. I'd get pretty miffed if everyone just kept calling me "Eevee". It gets kind of confusing if there is more than one of you around, huh?"

Cid just nodded slowly.

"Alright, so do you live anywhere nearby?" the eevee asked, looking around for any sign of a town. There was a road, a small one, but from what she remembered, Pokémon generally build everything smaller.

"Um... no," Cid shook his head.

"No?" Zoey repeated. "So, are you and your parents going through the countryside or something?" the female Pokémon asked, to which she received another headshake from the fire-type.

("Not that either? Okay, I'm out of ideas.")

"The truth is..." Cid spoke meekly "I am a human."

"SAY, WHAT?!" Zoey exclaimed, looking at the tiny fire-type in shock. Said Pokémon cowered down at her suddenly raising her voice, but Zoey was in too much of a shock to care at the moment.

("He's a human too?! What in Arceus name is going on here?!")

"Back up, back up!" Zoey suddenly shouted. "You're a human?!" Cid looked up from his crouching position and nodded. "Okay..." the eevee breathed out, trying to keep her volume under control. "Supposedly, I believe you, how are you a Pokémon, when you're supposed to be a human?"

"I-I don't know," Cid sniffled "I-I just woke up here and then those Pokémon attacked me! I don't remember anything. Not my home, my family, friends... I...I...I only have my name."

Seeing as the poor child was about to break down, Zoey quickly wrapped her forelegs around Cid and pulled him into her chest. She could feel her fur getting ever so slightly soaked by the tears which had already streamed out of the child's eyes. The female former human stroked a circle around his back with her paw, trying to calm the poor child down. He sniffled a couple of more times, but luckily Zoey seemed to have reacted in time to prevent a breakdown.

"Shh, there, there. Everything is going to be alright," Zoey spoke in a soft voice. "We're going to sort everything out." ("Okay, let's recap. I'm less than five minutes here, have been dragged into a fight, found another human that has been turned into a Pokémon, this one being a child and quite frankly, I am the one who wants to cry! Urrgh, at least I have all of my memories this time! The thing is, I need to figure out what to do now. I have no money, no food and this child is definitely not going to survive on his own, especially if Pokémon are still as territorial as I remember them to be.")

Eventually, Cid completely calmed down and simply nuzzled into Zoey's chest. The former girl actually found this behavior quite cute coming from the child. It didn't help that cyndaquills were cute in general. The two of them cuddled a little more until eventually Zoey broke the hug and gave Cid a gentle smile. "Okay look, I don't pretend to have any idea what is going. Those three just attacking you out of nowhere, you saying you're a human," Zoey took in a deep breath "but obviously SOMETHING is up. I don't think you're faking the amnesia story. I mean, I can't think of any reason for you to fake it."

("Gosh, I'm so unconvincing. How come I trusted Pikachu from the get-go when he just believed my story like that? Oh yeah, I didn't. I just rolled with the punches the first couple of days.")

Cid looked at Zoey, seemingly feeling at least a little better. ("Well, it looks like he thinks he can trust me. Probably just because I saved him right now.")

"Alright then," Zoey got up and stretched her back a little. "I suggest we get a move on before those three decide to come back with some friends." Zoey motioned with her head towards the way the Beheeyem had taken, causing Cid to shiver.

"O-Ok," he nodded.

"Right. Let's go the other way and... huh?" Zoey had just taken a couple of steps when she noticed something brown sticking out from behind a rock. Cid watched as the female eevee crouched down and pulled the brown thing out from behind the rock. This thing turned out to be a small bag pack, with a leather strap. "Huh, will you look at that."

"It's... a bag?" Cid spoke up quietly. He looked a little surprised when Zoey just opened the thing and went through its contents. "Whoop! Looks like we hit the jackpot!" Zoey shouted cheerfully. "Apples, Oran Berries and... sticks?" She pulled one stick out of the bag, carrying it in her mouth. After spitting it on the ground, the female former human inspected the piece of wood for a little bit and decided to put it back into the bag for the moment.

"Well, I guess this belongs to us now."

"W-what?!" Cid shouted, looking distressed. "B-but! Doesn't this belong to someone?" he pointed out.

"Probably the Beheeyem," Zoey waved off. "Don't feel bad about it. They attacked you for no reason. This will teach them a lesson."

"B-but... won't we get into trouble?" he asked.

"Trouble? If those guys show their faces ever again, they're the ones who'll be in trouble," was Zoey's reply. "Alright, let's go." Zoey walked up ahead, expecting the cyndaquill to follow her, which he did. He had a worried expression on his face, but the eevee ignored it in favor of getting her thoughts in line.

("Why did these Beheeyem attack Cid? And why did Cid get turned into a Pokémon? Well considering last time I got turned into a Pokémon it was to save the world of the Pokémon. Does that mean the world is in danger again? But wait. Let's assume the two of us have been sent here to save the world again. Why is my memory intact and his not? Arrgh, why can't I be eased into the situation, instead of me just randomly being thrown in?! Seriously! Anyway, for now, I think I'll keep quiet about my human origin. I should probably tell Cid to keep quiet as well, even if it is just to avoid others thinking that he escaped the mental clinic.")

Unaware of her internal ramblings, Cid was trotting right behind Zoey, the eevee. He found it surprisingly easy to walk in his new form, but he wasn't one to complain about the convenience. He was, however, feeling a little bit conflicted about Zoey. On the one hand, he was glad that she was helping him out, especially against those three Pokémon. On the other hand, she came over to him as a little... odd. It was just that she had believed him having amnesia without any proof. Plus she seemingly just shrugged off the comment about him being an actual human. Last, but not least, she just took a bag that obviously didn't belong to her and was carrying it, as if it had always belonged to her. She was even rummaging through its contents one more time, right this very moment as they followed the trail.

"Hmm... oh hey, they even left us their money," she mumbled just loud enough for Cid to hear, although that obviously had not been her intention. "Should get us around for a while." The thing was, for the time being, Cid had no choice but to rely on her, especially since he had still to fully wrap his head around the fact that he actually was a Pokémon. A great part of him thought or hoped that this was all just one weird dream and he would wake up soon in his old body.

Both former humans found themselves brought out of their respective train of thought when they noticed a Doduo running their way. The Pokémon stopped right in front of them, each of its respective heads glaring at the two Pokémon.

"What are you doing here?" the left head asked Cid.

"This is my running path. Get lost!" the second head shouted at Zoey.

"Hey there, chill out," Zoey spoke in a normal tone. "We're just passing by. We'll be out of your way in no time."

"No! You won't go any further!" Doduo shouted, now both heads glaring at Zoey. "Get lost or I'll make you."

"M-maybe we should listen to him..." Cid suggested to which Zoey couldn't help but roll her eyes.

"What's your problem? If you're so fond of your path, we won't even step-" But this was as far as far Zoey came. The Pokémon apparently had a short fuse and decided now was the right time to attack. It came running at Zoey, ready to peck her eyes out. Cid screamed in surprise, but Zoey was not impressed at all. She just opened her mouth and immediately stars flew out of it, hitting the doduo all over. The not-flying flying-type stumbled backward and hit the ground.

"Aahh... oww..." Doduo moaned his feathers in complete disarray.

"Weren't things supposed to be different by now?" the eevee asked, looking at the downed Pokémon.

"W-w-why did he attack?" Cid asked in a stutter. He subconsciously walked closer to eevee, until he touched her leg. Zoey let out a sigh, as she wrapped her leg around the cyndaquill. "These so-called..." wild Pokémon" are... they're weird in my opinion, okay? They get angry over the smallest of things, like stepping into their territory or being a grass-type or being an eevee, the list is endless, really." Another sigh escaped her lips. "It's pretty common to just knock them out. They'll eventually get up again and go on about their daily business, whatever they do out here."

"That's... not very nice," Cid commented, holding his head down.

"But, you know, it's still weird that he attacked just like that," Zoey commented, tilting her head.

"Really?" Cid asked, looking up at the eevee.

"Yeah, you see, a couple of years ago, there were a lot of catastrophes going on. Storms, forests set on fire, urgh, just thinking about it gives me the chills." Zoey shuddered involuntarily. "A lot of Pokémon grew really agitated during that time. But, as I said, that was years ago. It should all be back to normal by now." The eevee shook her head. "Maybe, I'm over thinking things. This guy here probably just had a bad day or something. Let's go."

But Cid didn't move an inch. Instead, he looked worriedly at the Doduo. "Will he really be okay?"

Zoey stopped in her advance and turned around. ("Wow, someone is a softy.") She smiled warmly and nodded. "Don't worry. Us Pokémon, we're really resilient creatures. He'll be up and running in no time, I can assure you that." With that being said, Zoey continued on her way. Cid the now cyndaquill gave Doduo one last look, before he ran after the normal-type until he caught up with her.

Still, despite what Zoey had said, she kept her guard up. After all, not only bothered Arceus to bring one but two humans into the Pokémon World this time. It didn't take a genius to figure out that shit was hitting the metaphorical fan somewhere in some way.

For ten minutes nothing really worth mentioning happened. The two former humans saw a flock of pidgeys flying overhead at one point, but none of the flying types paid the two ground-bound Pokémon any mind. Afterwards, however, they found themselves lucky, as they found an Oran Berry Tree right in front of them, with some ripe berries lying on the ground just waiting to be picked up.

"Oran Berries!" Zoey exclaimed. "My favorite!"

"Oran Berries?" Cid asked, looking expectantly at Zoey. The eevee looked down at the cyndaquill with a bright smile. "Oran Berries are really sweet, you can't just love them. But, not only are they tasty, they're really useful to make medicine. Even eating them as they are, they can give you back a lot of strength and increase the rate at which your wounds heal."

"Wow." The former male human looked with awe at the tree.

"Yup, yup! Come on! Let's grab as many of those things as we can carry!"

Cid appeared to be very eager in helping Zoey putting as many berries as possible into the bag, which resulted in only five being added to their stock. The two stuck to the ones they found on the ground since none of them had any means of getting up to the branches. Plus, most of the berries on the tree were still green, as such inedible.

"Well, I guess it is spring, so it does make sense," Zoey commented. ("Spring... yeah. I was getting ready for Christmas back at home.")

The duo continued on after the berries had been stashed away in the bag. Despite it being spring, Zoey found that the weather appeared to be particularly warm in these parts. Of course, she had yet to have a chance to get a look at a map and deduce from that where she actually was. But from what memories she had of the last time in this world, this definitely wasn't tiny woods.

As the two Pokémon came close to a particularly large tree, Zoey noticed something in the upper right corner of her vision. Looking up, she easily identified as to what was ever so slightly out of place. She stopped all of the sudden, causing Cid to halt as well.

"Look up." Zoey motioned towards one of the branches with her head. Cid looked up and became starry-eyed when he saw what the eevee had spotted.

"That's a huge acorn," the cyndaquill said in awe, to which Zoey had to giggle.

"Silly, that's not an acorn. That's a Seedot, a Pokémon."

"Wha- what?!" Cid exclaimed in surprise.

"Shh." Zoey chided softly. "It's sleeping," she explained.

The male Pokémon looked up again and tried to listen. And indeed, with both of them being quiet and not even the wind making a sound, he could hear tiny snores coming from up and above.

"Seedots absorb nutrients and water from the trees they hang from. They get heavier and heavier until they fall off. Some of them use this ability to play pranks or ambush enemies. Of course, since it is asleep, we could go for first blood."

Cid looked at Zoey aghast at the mere suggestion, while she just gave him an innocent smile. "Of course, doing this would make us no better than the Beheeyem." The cyndaquill let out an audible sigh of relief when he heard that they wouldn't attack them.

"Generally speaking," the eevee went on "I personally find it better to not attack any sleeping Pokémon, even if you know that they'll attack you in return. It saves you a lot of energy. By the way, I still need to thank you for your Ember earlier. It really helped me out against the last Beheeyem."

"Uh...uh... you're welcome," Cid replied meekly. "And... thank you. For saving me."

"Aw, no problem, cutie." Cid blushed and looked away at the girly compliment he just got.

"Let's go, before we accidentally wake him up."

XXX

In the meantime, a couple of miles away from the former humans, the Beheeyem were currently busy with cowering away from their boss.

"What do you mean, he got help?!" the boss shouted on top of his lungs.

"I-it's like we said," Number 1 spoke with a trembling voice. "The human got help from an eevee."

"An eevee? Are you three honestly telling me that you couldn't handle one tiny eevee?!" the boss shouted on top of his lungs.

"S-s-she was really strong," Number 2 explained.

"A-a-and we still weren't feeling too well from the f-f-f-fight with the human," Number 3 argued.

"Aaah! You three! I don't know why I keep you three around! So! Where did they go?!"

"S-s-serene Village," all three answered, hugging each other closely.

"Serene Village?" the boss repeated, crossing his arms. "There is no eevee living in Serene Village! Tch, great. Looks like we got a change of plans on our hands. You three! Stay away from Serene Village, until I say otherwise. The eevee might just get the authorities on your case. As for me, well, I guess it's time to improvise."

XXX

"Hot, hot, HOT!" the cottonee scream, as it burned from the ember attack Cid hit it with. It jumped in a circle for a couple of seconds, until its thoughts became coherent enough to jump into the nearby river.

"Ahh..." with the fire extinguished, the cottonee floated blissfully away. And the entire time Zoey had been laughing her ass off.

"Hahaha, oh man. This totally made my day." The eevee needed to wipe a tear away from her face, she was laughing that hard.

"I-I didn't mean to hurt it," Cid protested. "I-it, she just surprised me and I-"

"You reacted," Zoey finished, still snickering a little. "She wanted to ambush you and you simply reacted and defended yourself. There's no need to feel bad, she got what was coming to her."

Cid slumped down on his rump. "I still feel bad. I don't want to hurt anybody..."

The eevee resisted the urge to flinch, knowing that sadly this was a pipe dream, even in the Pokémon World. And given that Cid was probably here in order to fight some big, bad entity or something. Or maybe he was just destined to go to Rayquaza and point with his finger towards the next best meteor about to crash on the planet. Yeah, on hindsight, that had been an anticlimactic ending.

"Cid..." Zoey put a paw on his back. "Our world isn't perfect. No one forces you to fight (except whoever decided a child of all things would be a good candidate as the savior of the world), but sadly not every fight is unavoidable."

In response, the cyndaquill looked even more crestfallen. Zoey sighed, not sure how to handle this situation. Fighting came to her at this point naturally. This point was proven once more when a Bisofank came storming into their direction. Cid screamed as soon as he saw the normal-type coming closer. Zoey almost scoffed and countered with a Quick Attack, resulting in her head butting against the Bisofank's. The massive afro, although it carried the awesomeness bonus, didn't protect the bearer in the slightest and to the surprise of both Bisofank and Cid, the bull-like Pokémon found himself lying on the ground with a massive headache.

"H-how...?! Ow..."

Zoey didn't bother answering the Bisofank's question. If her attacks were enough to fight legendaries, a Pokémon that had a bit more hair than usual was certainly no problem for her. Indeed, so far, only the Beheeyem managed to even land some attacks on her. All the other Pokémon she and Cid had encountered so far, they had either left alone or probably thought about getting a life insurance.

"Let's talk somewhere else," Zoey not suggested, but ordered. Cid just nodded, dumbfounded after seeing how the smaller eevee easily managed to beat the much bigger Pokémon with just one hit.

"And, if you don't want to fight, then don't. I'll take everyone on."

"A-are you sure?" the former male human asked, but eevee didn't give him an answer. She was way too focused on protecting the Pokémon who wasn't ready to fight back as of yet. Hopefully, she could change this given time. And if not, she might just take on the big evil herself.

XXX

The forest the two former humans traversed through turned out to be a rather small one. They were just at the edge of the forest when the two suddenly found a very peculiar sight. A bunch of pidgeys was sitting on the lower branches and glared down at the normal and fire-type. Cid almost immediately hid behind Zoey.

"W-w-why are they staring at us?" Cid asked fearfully.

Truth to be told, the experienced eevee didn't have an immediate answer, but she quickly found one, by looking past the birds.

"They're protecting their nests."

"Huh?" Cid ever so slowly, looked up from behind Zoey and after squirming his already squirmed eyes, he could make out one or two not so well hidden birds nest.

"Let's go around. I don't want to accidentally hurt any children."

Zoey guided Cid a wide way around the trees, which the flock used as breeding grounds. This caused them to finally leave the forest with a five-minute delay. But once they actually were outside, Cid suddenly found the need to support himself on the nearest tree. Looking down on him, Zoey saw that he was breathing heavily and even his tongue stuck out.

"Need a break?"

"Y-yes..." Cid answered and fell on his behind. A growl escaped his stomach, making Zoey realize that she herself hadn't had something to eat for quite some time. Sitting down herself, the eevee took two apples out of the bag and placed one in front of Cid.

"Eat up," she ordered the fire-type, which he was all too happy to comply. Bits and pieces of the apple flew all around the place and into Zoey's fur, as he devoured the fruit in front of him. The former female human didn't mind. It was like watching a puppy video eating a meal. With that in mind, she started munching on her own apple. For a while, the two just sat there at the outer edges of the forest they just traversed through. Zoey was eating at a much slower pace, as multiple things went through her head at once. Listing them all up would take a while, but what stood out the most was her former team.

Was Stardust still around? Did the team disband after she left this world? Did they miss her? Or did they hate her for not telling them anything? But most importantly: what became of her partner?

The eevee looked down on her scarf, melancholy written over her face. She grabbed with a paw beneath the cloth and unclipped the old rescue badge that was attached to the thing. Taking it out, she was surprised that in her absence her team had increased to the Gold Rank. Although she guessed, the committee simply saw it fit to award Stardust with that honor, after they had saved the world from destruction. Smiling sadly, she safely clipped the thing back under her scarf. After she did so, she noticed that Cid was already finished with his apple, while she was only halfway done.

"Want another apple?" she asked, to which Cid shook his head.

"Zoey... what is that thing?" he asked, pointing at her scarf. The eevee guessed he meant the badge underneath her scarf.

"Just a little present I got from a friend," she lied, not wanting to speak about Rescue Teams, especially her own team now. Heck, she was most likely no longer officially registered.

"A present."

"Mhmm," Zoey nodded. She stood up and stretched her legs. "We'll rest up here for a bit before we continue," she told the former human, sitting down again after stretching every limb individually. "In the meantime, how about we have a little talk? You said you're actually a human?"


	2. Chapter 2

When Cid woke up from his slumber, he noticed that someone had wrapped a leg around himself. Opening his eyes, he noticed that there was a brown legged fur wrapped around his body. The human noted that his body appeared to be unusually small. It took him a second to remember that he had been turned into a Pokémon and that the leg belonged to Zoey, the eevee who had saved his life the other day. Just thinking about the Beheeyem made the Cyndaquil shudder, causing him to snuggle deeper into Zoey's fur. Said eevee looked down on the fire-type, when she felt him moving under her leg. She smiled down at him and even gave him a quick nuzzle on his head.

"Morning, sunshine," she greeted him softly.

"M-morning," Cid greeted her back, looking up from under her fur.

"Are you still tired?" she asked. "You can go back to sleep if you want."

"N-no." Cid shook his tiny head. "I'm awake," he told her.

"Alright." Zoey nodded. "A shame, really. I didn't know you fire-types are so comfortable." Grinning down at the smaller Pokémon, the normal-type stood up and stretched her entire body, even her ears and tail.

"Ahh, much better," the former female human sighed in relief. "I'm gonna use the bathroom real quick. Be right back!" Zoey quickly disappeared into the bushes, leaving Cid to his own devices. He too felt the need to stretch himself and took a look at his surroundings.

After they had wandered for a couple of more hours, Zoey had decided that they would sleep the night on the little clearing they had found. It was right next to the road and not too far away from the river. Basically, Zoey had insisted that they walk right next to the river and only use the road as a kind of orientation, checking it out every once in awhile to see if a town was coming up. She reasoned this course of action with that they had no way of storing water in a canteen or something, as such a constant supply was needed and secondly, she wasn't from around. Yeah, apparently Cid had the worst luck, getting saved by a Pokémon who was not even from around. Apparently, Zoey was, as she put it, seeing the world and just happened to stumble upon Cid. Well, he wasn't one to complain. After all, if Zoey hadn't been there, who knows what might have happened.

("Still, it is quite surprising that she believes me being a human just like that. Well, she never outright said that, but I get the feeling that she believes me.") Out of nowhere, Cid's stomach began to rumble. He rubbed his tiny paws over his tummy, looking down on it. ("Oh right, breakfast was a thing. I'm sure Zoey won't mind if I eat an apple, right?")

Zoey had left the bag, which she "confiscated" from the Beheeyem, leaning right next to a tree. Cid walked over to the said bag and opened it carefully with his paws. This simple motion proved to be a little harder than one might expect, but this could be easily justified by him now having shorter arms, than that of a human. It made even this little mundane task difficult for him. Nevertheless, he succeeded in opening the bag, only for the thing to for over and its contents to be spilled out.

"Oh no!" the small fire-type exclaimed, trying to stop all of the contents from spilling out, by placing himself right in front of said bag but only succeeded partially. "Oh no, no, no!" As quickly as he possibly could, Cid hastily placed everything back into the bag, not caring if he made a mess or not. As he was halfway done, a sudden giggle stopped him in his tracks. Turning around, he saw that Zoey had already returned and was smiling in amusement.

"Need a hand?" she asked, making a motion with her paw. Without waking for an answer, Zoey quickly proceeded to put everything back, which roughly took thirty seconds. At the end, she only left two apples outside, as she was feeling rather famished herself. She placed one in front of Cid, before taking one for herself.

"And, back to the apple diet," she commented. "One of these days, I actually remember to pack some bananas," she vowed with a serious tone before she started eating. Cid smiled slightly amused at the eevee's antics. He hungrily devoured the tasty apple himself, enjoying every second of it. He wasn't sure what made the apple taste so good: either because he was a Pokémon now or maybe because it had been a while since he last had an apple. But whatever the reason, he could eat apples every day in his opinion.

After they were done eating, the two former humans simply continued their journey through the unknown landscape. Well, at least it was a beautiful landscape with green meadows, the occasional flowers and lots of flying-types journeying overhead. And that was pretty much how the next couple of hours could be summed up. Unlike the previous day, they didn't get attacked by random wild Pokémon, but at the same time, they didn't meet any traveling Pokémon either. All in all, it was pretty boring. Not that Cid minded that there were no more fights, but still, there was nothing outstanding in the landscape they wandered through. So, at some point, he decided to strike a conversation with Zoey. There was something bothering him, anyways.

"Hey, Zoey?"

"Yeah, what's up?" she asked without turning her head.

"What are we going to do?" he asked.

"What do you mean?" the female Pokémon immediately asked back.

"Well…" Cid fidgeted with his paws. "What are we going to do, when we reach a town? Are we going to stay there or…?" he trailed off, not sure how to continue the question. Luckily, however, Zoey caught on quite easily, as she had been thinking about this stuff too.

"Well, we have two options at the moment. Number one is that we use the next best town as a pit stop, stock up on supplies, get a map and maybe some directions from the locals and then continue our journey until we reach my old hometown, which could take a while. Or, my preferred option, we settle down at the next town, try to find a hotel or something, I get myself a job and try to contact some old friends of mine."

"Hmm…" Cid thought about what he had been told for a moment. "So, we're going to settle down? But… what are we going to tell the people about me?" Unknowingly the fire-type won some points in Zoey's mind for being able to think ahead.

"First things first, don't claim to be a human," she said sternly. "At best it will get you some odd looks and at worst they'll insist on you going to the mental hospital."

Cid flinched at this notion. He may have amnesia, but he still understood the concept of mental hospitals.

"What we will tell them is that you have amnesia."

"...Do we have to?" he asked meekly. Zoey stopped in her tracks, causing Cid to stumble a little. He looked up wanting to know what was wrong, only to all of the sudden feel her snout on his head. She was nuzzling him again. The fire-type blushed a little. The normal-type gave the smaller Pokémon a kind smile.

"Listen, Cid, everything is going to be new for you and you'll inevitably be asked questions to which the answer should be obvious or do things that Pokémon find strange. If we tell everyone about your condition, they'll be more accepting of your behavior and even help you out. Trust me, it's for the better."

"O-okay," the former male human accepted the explanation, albeit he still had some reservations about just telling everyone about this. The duo moved on, while Zoey continued explaining her plans.

"While we're at it, we better tell the local police force about the Beheeyem. If they keep an eye out for them, we don't have to worry about them suddenly showing up and attacking us again. If they're that stupid, anyway."

"And… what am I going to do?" Cid asked.

"Well… that's something I'm still working out," Zoey admitted. "You look around school age, but whether the next town even has a school is up to question. Heck, my place is so small, everyone just homeschools their children. However, the only thing I can properly teach you is how to defend yourself, basic math and reading and writing."

"I-I can red. I think… and write," Cid insisted, although even he had to admit he didn't sound so sure of himself.

"You think, huh? Let's test it out then."

By pure chance, the two came across a sign being placed right next to the road. Both Pokémon looked up and found some text written on it.

"Read it," Zoey told the younger Pokémon, who took another look, before obliging.

"Serene Village, five miles north," Cid read perfectly. ("That's definitely not written in human, yet… it feels like I could always read it. Is it somehow connected to me turning into a Pokémon?") the fire-type wondered to himself.

"Perfect," Zoey applauded. "That's one thing less to worry about. Serene Village, huh? Never heard of it. I wonder if they even have a post office. Wait a minute, does my bank account even still exist?" Zoey facepalmed. "I have been away for way too long."

Cid just looked at his current caretaker curiously.

XXX

It didn't take long for the duo to arrive at Serene Village. The first thing they saw of the small community, was when they arrived on a hill, from which they had a view over the entire village. Cid found himself mesmerized by the view alone. The houses didn't really appear to be built, as they appeared to be grown out of the ground, like trees. The only exception appeared to be one large building, which was positioned right next to a huge lake. The river Zoey and he had been following this entire time ran straight into said lake. They could even see some Pokémon in what appeared to be the local plaza, though they couldn't determine what kind of Pokémon, as the two could only see them as dots in the distance.

"A lot more houses than at the Pokémon Plaza," was Zoey's first comment. "But it looks nice."

"It's beautiful," was Cid's opinion.

Zoey didn't say anything to that comment. After having seen Rayquaza's or even Articuno's home, Serene Village was… definitely an improvement to her home in the human world, but not even close to the other two places.

"Let's go. As much as I love cuddling up to you, I'd love to sleep in a real bed tonight."

Cid blushed a little at the cuddling comment, as he had quite enjoyed it as well. What could he say? Zoey's fur was pretty comfortable. Despite sleeping on the ground last night, he had no problem falling asleep, thanks to said fur.

The duo of former humans, quickly headed down the hill and towards the village as they did so. Further view of their soon to be hometown was obscured by a group of trees growing right in front of the village, at least until they were only a hundred meters away from the entrance.

Once inside, Cid and Zoey could get a better look at the houses. They actually did look like trees, hollowed out trees to be precise. Yet the wood didn't appear to have died. Quite the contrary, on some houses there were branches with singular leaves growing on them. But they didn't enjoy the local architecture for long. The biggest building in town had particularly caught Zoey's interest, as such, she led Cid over a bridge towards a plaza, where a bunch of Pokémon were gathered.

There was a Kecleon running a small shop (because they're a mafia family), the biggest building turned out to be a café, for some reason there was a big, black box standing right next to the Kecleon Shop and finally, there was a small tent with a Hawlucha inside. Other Pokémon included a Lombre (Zoey needed a moment to realize that this wasn't the Lombre she was acquaintanced with), a Raticate (sadly not the Alolan Version), a Magby, a Hippopotas and even a Carracosta. Already this place had more Pokémon living in it than Pokémon Plaza. And from the looks of things, this was only a part of the entire population.

"Wow… so many Pokémon," Cid spoke with awe in his voice.

"Definitely a lot," Zoey nodded in agreement. "Look at that lake. Makes you just wanna dive in and swim to your heart's content."

"N-n-n-no, thanks," Cid disagreed, suddenly feeling not comfortable just looking at the lake.

"Oh, right. Fire-type." Zoey facepalmed and laughed at her own goofiness. "This will make baths a bit more complicated," she mumbled to herself, before clearing her throat. "Anyways, what should we do? Go to the café and have something to eat or look around the village first?"

Cid contemplated the question for a moment, but before he could give a proper answer, his stomach decided to go ahead and give its own answer in form of a very loud rumble. The former male human blushed in embarrassment, to which the eevee only laughed.

"Alright, the café it is," Zoey proclaimed and walked ahead, Cid following close behind. The inside of the café was richly decorated to Zoey's surprise. She definitely wasn't expecting this from a café that was placed in such a small village. It was apparently run by a Kangaskhan and her child. Once again, Zoey found herself frozen up in place for the briefest of moments, as the usually female human needed to remind herself that this wasn't the same Pokémon she remembered.

The two newcomers placed themselves in a corner of the at this point in time empty café. It was too early to tell if this was a usual occurrence or if the two had just arrived at the right time of the day. The menu was short as one might expect of something being placed in the countryside, but the selection was promising to say the least.

"Jeez, everything here looks so tasty," Zoey said in a good-hearted fashion. "But I think I'll go with the classic fruit salad for now. What do you want?"

Cid couldn't decide as quickly as Zoey. A fruit salad sounded tasty, but aside from that they offered here some baked berries and other fruits, various ice cream and when it came to the drinks, he couldn't even fathom to imagine what they were supposed to be, with the exception of two things. Apple juice was pretty much self-explanatory and somewhere in the recess of his mind, he could remember always being fond of lemonade.

"Hello, you two. Are you new here?" a voice suddenly interrupted Cid in his musings. Looking up, he found out it was the owner of the establishment holding a notepad and a pencil, ready to take their orders.

"Yup, we just arrived here," Zoey answered.

"Oh my and where do you come from, if I might ask?"

Now Cid was getting ever so slightly nervous. He wasn't exactly ready to tell anyone about his condition just yet, not when he hadn't even come to terms with that idea. Luckily, Zoey was there to save him once again.

"Pokémon Plaza," she answered simply.

"Pokémon Plaza? Isn't that on another continent?" Kangaskhan asked, obviously taken by surprise and even Cid was taken aback by this piece of information.

("Zoey's home is on a completely different continent?! Just how long has she been traveling and how far for that matter?!") he wondered to himself.

"Eh, I like to travel a lot," Zoey waved off. "By the way, is there a post office nearby? I need to write a couple of letters. You know, keep in touch with friends and family."

Kangaskhan smiled when Zoey mentioned friends and family. "Well, we don't have an office per say, but Pelipper comes here every morning and takes the post with him. We're so far off from the bigger city, an entire office would be a waste," she informed the newcomers.

"That's good enough for me, thanks. Do you happen to have paper and a pen that I can borrow? I kinda ran out the last town," the eevee smiled sheepishly. The café owner laughed.

"Of course dear, it's no problem. By the way, that is a nice scarf that you're wearing."

"Thanks!" Zoey's smile brightened. "This thing means a lot to me! There exist only two of those, you know? The other one belongs to-" The female newcomer found herself interrupted, when all of the sudden Cid's stomach began to rumble in protest, causing the two female Pokémon to laugh, while the cyndaquil was embarrassed once again.

"Oh dear, how rude of me. You must be hungry after all of the traveling you two have done. Just tell me what I can bring you and you'll get it in a jiffy," the kangaskhan proclaimed. Zoey ordered her fruit salad with a glass of oran berry juice, while Cid went with baked apples and lemonade. Just like Kangaskhan promised, it didn't take long for their orders to arrive. Zoey paid upfront and gave the owner a tip, even though their money supply was fairly limited at this point in time. But both could agree that the food was quite worth it. After they were done with their individual meals, Kangaskhan brought Zoey the promised writing utensils, allowing the eevee to start writing her letters. The thing was, although she eventually learned how to write as an eevee, it was still quite the difference from writing stuff as a normal human. As such, Zoey could see that this would probably take hours until she would be finally done. Unless of course, she wanted her letters to come out as completely unreadable.

"Hey, Cid, I'm gonna be stuck here for some time, so how about you take a look around the village yourself?"

"Um… if you're sure?" the cyndaquil answered hesitantly.

"Of course. I don't need to tell you not to leave the village, right?" she asked in a sarcastic matter.

XXX

As Cid stepped outside, he was greeted by the smell of flowers entering his nose. To be entirely honest, he wasn't sure what he should do now. Sure, exploring the town sounded like a good idea at the moment, but seeing all of those Pokémon around him made him quite nervous. He wasn't sure if he could really talk to any of them.

("I don't really need to talk to anyone just now. It wouldn't hurt getting to know the place. It's definitely better than sitting around and-")

"I knew it!"

"Ah!" Cid jumped in place when he suddenly heard a voice screaming behind him. Turning around, he found out that it had been a green and white Pokémon who had made the noise. Said Pokémon was grinning at him as if he had just given her a new toy or something.

"I knew my eyes weren't playing tricks on me!" she, the voice was definitely female, went on. "I totally saw you go into the café with that eevee! Where are you from? What's your name?"

Still recovering from the surprise, Cid was taken aback by how fast the Pokémon in front of him spoke. By the time he had gathered his thoughts, the Pokémon went on.

"I am Snivy. I live right next to Mr. Nuzleaf's house! Oh, since you're new here, you probably don't know where that is. Here, let me show you!"

"Wha-?! Wait!"

But Snivy wasn't listening. The little fire-type was so out of his element, that he couldn't do anything as the female grass-type pushed him through Serene Village until they arrived in front of a house with a blue rooftop.

"See? It's that house right up there!" she proclaimed.

"I… see…" Cid responded slowly.

"So, where are you from?" Snivy repeated her earlier question. "Are you that eevee's child or something? Is that even possible? Yeah, right, like that could ever happen. Ha ha ha ha ha!"

("She's… excited? I guess…") the fire-type thought to himself, as he tried to figure out the village local in front of him.

"Oh right!" and the Snivy still went on. "But this is your first time here, right? In that case, I'll show you around the place! Come on!" And just like that, Cid found himself being pushed back to where they left off: the village square. While he was being pushed, Snivy still continued talking.

"What did you say your name was? Or- wait. Did I ask you that already? I didn't ask you, did I?"

"I-I-I am Cid," the former human managed to stutter out, just as they arrived at their destination.

"I see!" Snivy nodded to herself and walked right in front of Cid. "Sorry about that! I went and asked and never even gave you a chance to answer!"

"I-It's alright," he told her back, finally managing to catch himself.

"...Hmm? Am I annoying?" the grass-type asked out of nowhere. "You're totally thinking about how annoying I am right now, yeah?"

"W-what?!" Cid exclaimed aghast. "No, no!" he denied vehemently, shaking his head.

"Really? That's awfully nice of you! You're a really nice guy!"

"Er… thank you?"

"Oh, hey Cid!" another female voice called out to him. Both Pokémon turned around and found Zoey running out of the café. "Good thing you're still here. I totally forgot to give you something. Here." The female eevee placed a small bag on the ground in front of the cyndaquil. He could hear the sound of coins hitting each other, as the tiny bag hit the ground.

"Consider it pocket money. Buy yourself something nice, while I'm busy," Zoey told him.

"Thank you," the former human answered and picked up the bag of coins.

"Hm?" Zoey just now seemed to notice the company Cid was in. "Oh, hey there little snivy. I'm Zoey. Me and Cid just arrived in town."

"Hello, Miss Zoey!" Snivy greeted back enthusiastically. "I'm Snivy. It's nice to meet you! Say, are you Cid's mom?"

"Say what?!" Zoey exclaimed, clearly not expecting to be asked that question. However, just a second later her expression became thoughtful for some reason. "Well, Cid and I do share the same egg-group, but… I can't remember accidentally laying an egg or something." She smiled suddenly. "Then again, my memory is not the most reliable thing, so maybe?"

Cid gaped at the eevee, while the normal-type couldn't keep it to herself and she started to laugh. "Nah, just kidding." She winked at the two kids. "I'm Cid's guardian."

Snivy let out a giggle. "You're funny, Miss Zoey."

"Thank you," the normal-type's smile brightened. "Anyways, I got some letters to write. Have fun, Cid. Be sure to be back at the café around sundown, okay? I have rented a room for us to sleep in."

"Okay," Cid simply replied.

"Alright then. Have fun kids." Having said that, Zoey quickly returned to the café building, leaving Cid and Snivy behind.

"Hehe, she's really nice," Snivy commented. "Alright then! Since you've just gotten a little bit of money, why don't we check out Kecleon's stand?"

"Umm… okay," was Cid's reply. He figured since basically everything was still new to him, it would be good to have a guide of some sort. And since Zoey would be busy for the next couple of hours, having Snivy to show him around, who even lived in this village, would be great. As such, the two made their way over to Kecleon's little shop, where they were greeted by the owner.

"Why, hello there Snivy! Today with a friend? Hmm, I don't believe I have seen you before," Kecleon spoke, tapping a finger under his chin.

"This Cid," Snivy introduced the new pokémon to the local one. "He just arrived today. I'm showing him around."

"Well, that's awfully nice of you, Snivy. I'm Kecleon and as you can see, I own this humble establishment here in Serene Village. Speaking of establishment, is there anything I can do for the two of you?"

"I'll have a green gummi!"

"Haha, as always!" Kecleon grabbed the item in question and placed it on the counter. Snivy in the meantime had produced her own bag filled with coins and paid Kecleon upfront. "Thank you!" she shouted and stuffed the tasty treat inside her mouth.

"And what can I do for you?" Kecleon spoke to the newcomer. Cid wasn't sure what he should get for himself. While the shop was definitely of the smaller variety, basically everything was new to him, making it ever so slightly overwhelming to decide for one of those things. However, when his eyes fell on a basket filled with nothing but apples, his mind was made up.

"Could I have an apple, please?"

"Why, of course! Here you go!" Kecleon grabbed into the basket and produced an apple out of it. Cid in the meantime placed the required amount of coins on the counter, which luckily was low enough for his small body to reach up. Once he got the apple into his tiny paws, he immediately began munching away on it, until nothing was left on it.

"Wow, that was fast," Snivy commented. "Are you sure you aren't a muchlax?"

While Cid didn't know what a muchlax was, he still blushed in embarrassment, when both Kecleon and Snivy began to laugh."

"Have a good day, children."

"Bye Kecleon!" Snivy waved off before she and Cid walked away. "Okay, what next?" the grass-type thought out loud. "You have already been to the café, so we can scratch that one off the list."

Before she could come up with something, the two children heard a voice shouting: "What?! Goomy did?!"

Wondering what was going on, the two kids turned their attention towards the voice. They found two more Pokémon standing in front of what appeared to be another exit out of the village.

"Huh? These are Deerling and Shelmet," Snivy told her companion.

"Yeah, well, he insisted on going…" Shelmet drifted off.

"No more excuses, Shelmet!" Deerling shouted angrily, surprising both Snivy and Cid. "Tell me the truth! You and Pancham pushed him into this, didn't you?"

"Th-that's… not fair, Deerling!" Shelmet looked down, a guilty expression appearing on his face. "He's the one who said he wanted to go! How can you stand there and blame us?" It didn't sound like Shelmet believed even a single word he himself said.

"Quite easily," Deerling retorted. "You're the ones who are always teasing poor Goomy, after all! Someday you're going to go too far and it'll be too late for sorries then!"

"Hey guys," Snivy made her presence known, getting the attention of the two Pokémon. "What's up?" she asked.

"Oh, hello Snivy," Deerling sounded a lot calmer when talking to her fellow grass-type. "And who's this with you?"

"That's Cid. He's new in town. So, what's this about Goomy?"

"Th-that's none of your business," Shelmet shouted immediately.

("Huh? Why is he so aggressive towards Snivy?") Cid wondered to himself.

"Quiet you!" Deerling shouted, causing Shelmet to shut his mouth immediately. The grass and normal-type took in a deep breath, before explaining things to Snivy and Cid. "You see, Shelmet and Pancham tricked Goomy into doing some kind of challenge. Something about proving that he is not a wimp or something."

"Oh," was all that came out of Snivy's mouth.

("A challenge?") the fire-type repeated inside his head. ("Why do I get a bad feeling about this?")

"They tricked him into going somewhere dangerous," Deerling went on.

"And where would that be?" Snivy asked in return, to which the deer pokémon turned towards Shelmet.

"That's what I want to know. Where did you tell Shelmet to go?"

"Uh… the Foreboding Forest," he answered, slowly.

"Say what?!" Deerling exclaimed in shock.

("Foreboding Forest? I hope the name doesn't imply-")

As if she had heard his thoughts, Snivy turned around and explained to Cid just what the Foreboding Forest was.

"The Foreboding Forest is a dangerous place, filled with aggressive Pokémon. The adults always tell us to stay out of that place, because they claim it's TOO dangerous for us kids."

"And for a good reason!" Deerling exclaimed. "And now Goomy is inside of that forest! We have to do something!"

"Yeah!" Snivy shouted enthusiastically. "We need to go into the forest and save Goomy! Come on! What are we waiting for!" Having declared that, the pure grass-type ran ahead.

"H-hey! Wait, Snivy! It's dangerous to go alone!" Deerling shouted before running after her.

"Wait, Deerling! We can't let anything happen to the class best!" Shelmet shouted as he ran after his apparent classmate, leaving Cid alone.

("Oh no! What should I do?! I can't let these children go into a dangerous forest all by themselves! But, I can't leave the village. I promised Zoey not to do that. Besides… I don't even know how to fight. The few times I used an attack, it was purely by accident.")

Cid turned around and looked at the café that was only a couple of meters away from him. ("Zoey can help them. She had no problem protecting me. But…") Cid looked at the ground, troubled. ("If I tell an adult about this, the other kids no doubt will get into trouble. And if they get into trouble because of me, they'll hold it against me. What should I do?")

The small fire-type looked back and forth between the café and the exit of the village. After a minute or two, he made his decision.

("Even if they hate me, it's not really worth if someone gets hurt in the end. Or worse…")

XXX

In front of the Foreboding Forest, Snivy and Deerling were currently busy talking to their classmates Pancham and Shelmet.

"What?!" Deerling exclaimed. "He still hasn't come back out?"

"Yeah, that's right," Pancham answered in an arrogant tone. "It's been a pretty long time, too. I knew he was a total wimp." The panda pokémon made a not-impressed gesture with his hand.

"No surprise there," Shelmet agreed. "He shoulda just admitted what a wimp he is and kept his mouth shut."

"But he had to go and talk big, like he could handle this kind of place," Pancham went on. "He was boasting, saying, "I'll show you!" That's what got him into this mess."

"Hey, wasn't it you two, who got him into this mess?" Snivy glared at Pancham, who just ignored her.

"He's probably huddled up somewhere in the forest, petrified and sniffing back tears!"

The two children laughed, causing Snivy and Deerling to get really angry.

"You are so mean, Pancham!" Deerling shouted. "Goomy isn't even the same age as us yet!" she argued.

"Yeah!" Snivy agreed. "And if you're so tough, why don't you just go into that forest yourself?!"

"Wha-?! Hey, it was Goomy who talked big like that! Not me!"

"Well, in that case, I'll go after him," Snivy proclaimed.

"Me too!" Deerling added, causing her two male classmates to get in her way.

"No way! You can't go in there, Deerling!" Shelmet shouted.

"What if something happened to you? We can't let that happen to our idol!" Pancham argued. "Let the idiot go all by herself!"

"Hey, I heard that!" Snivy shouted.

"Are you kidding me?!" Deerling shouted.

It was to this scene that Zoey and Cid arrived. The two had been listening to the conversation of the school kids for some time, mainly because their voices could be heard from pretty far away. Even the entrance of the forest was unnaturally silent.

"Hm, who's this?" Shelmet was the first one to notice the two newcomers. Zoey and Cid stepped forward, the former having an angry expression on her face.

"Ah! A-an adult!" Pancham exclaimed.

"Oh, Cid! And Miss Zoey!" Snivy shouted in excitement.

("Funny") Zoey thought to herself ("I'm technically still a teenager, yet these kids already see me as an adult. Ah, what gives? One month doesn't make that great of a difference, does it?")

"I'll deal with you two later," she growled at Pancham and Shelmet, who jumped backward in surprise and fear. Having successfully put the bullies into their place, Zoey turned her attention to Deerling.

"So let me get some things straight, real quick. Your friend Goomy is missing in this forest. How long exactly?" she asked in serious tone.

"Uh…" Deerling herself was nervous all of the sudden. "A couple of hours at least…"

"So possibly hungry, but still in good condition. Given that you're all kids, Goomy probably isn't much of a fighter, huh?" Worry could now be heard in Zoey's voice.

"Y-yeah," Deerling admitted.

"She's got the worst grades in PE."

"Snivy! That was uncalled for!" Deerling chided.

"What?" the other grass-type asked, offended. "It's true."

"Okay," Zoey spoke up before the two children in front of her began to bicker. "I think we can skip the question as to what kind of Pokémon live inside the forest, given that you probably never entered it."

None of the Pokémon present dared to answer that question.

"Right, I see." Zoey turned towards Cid. "I need to ask you to come with me."

"W-what?!" the fire-type exclaimed in shock. "B-b-but I-!"

"You don't need to fight," Zoey quickly assured him. "However, four eyes see more than two. I have never been here, as such I need all the help I can get in order to find Goomy. Together we can see more and hopefully we'll find Goomy quicker too. I can go alone, but if I take too long, something might happen to the poor Pokémon."

That got Cid's attention. He hadn't thought about the child trapped inside the forest and he could see the logic behind Zoey's reasoning. She had already proven that she could defend him, if the need arises. Plus, if it helped to prevent the child from getting hurt, then he was definitely in.

"All right," he said and nodded seriously.

Zoey internally flinched, seeing as her plan had worked a little too well in her opinion. ("I'm sorry Cid. But if Arceus really has a bigger plan for you, then I need to make sure you're prepared for whatever is coming your way. After all, this isn't a video game, where you can try again and again and again, until you finally manage to defeat the final boss.")

"Okay." Zoey wanted to enter the forest right at this moment, however, she found herself stopped before she even made the first step. Snivy was all of the sudden standing in her way and beaming up at her.

"I want to come too! I can help you find Goomy!"

Zoey gave the small grass-type a hard look. ("She's really eager to go. Kinda reminds me of myself, back when I started. But she is even younger than I was!") The eevee internally sighed. ("At this point, I can't rule anyone here out as possibly being Cid's destined partner. Granted, Snivy is pretty high on the list for being a Starter Pokémon... Arceus, what the hell made you so high to enlist the help of children? I want some of that!")

"Alright," Zoey said after a minute.

"Yay! Adventure! Come on, come on, let's go!" Snivy ran ahead.

"Hey! Stick close to me!" Zoey shouted after the grass-type. Using her Quick Attack, she easily managed to pass Snivy and stop in front of her. The poor smaller Pokémon straight up crashed into Zoey and landed on her back due to the recoil.

"No running ahead," Zoey told the grass-type sternly. "We'll be looking for Goomy together. Got it?!"

"Yep, yep!" Snivy nodded enthusiastically, her good mood not even receiving the slightest damper.

"Good. 'Cause I have no problem leaving you behind, if you run off like that. I'll even tie you up, if I have to."

This made Snivy slightly nervous, but she didn't show it outright. Instead, she got off the ground, dusted off her arms and legs and gave the eevee a salute. "Yes ma'am!" she shouted, causing Zoey to giggle and Cid to smile.

"Alright, alright, let's go already."


	3. Chapter 3

On a personal level, Zoey didn't think that the Foreboding Forest was too bad of a place. She found it actually to be quite the appealing place to live in. The young woman especially liked all the purple color some of the leaves had taken on. It was a little chilly under all of those trees, but she didn't mind, neither did the local fruit trees. There were plenty of berries growing around, but almost none were ripe, given the current season. Plus they had passed a little creek earlier, meaning this place had everything she would need to survive. Maybe she could hire some local pokémon to help her build a new house someday.

But these things had to wait. For now, she and her two young companions were busy looking for another pokémon, who got lost in this forest. Cid was walking to her left, while the local Snivy stayed to her right. The eevee mentally noted that the grass-type appeared to be in a somewhat cheerful mood, despite the fact that her classmate was lost in this forest.

"Oh, what's this?" Snivy ran towards whatever she had spotted before she even finished that sentence.

"Hey! What did I tell you about staying together?!" Zoey shouted, but the grass-type just kept running. Letting out a small growl, Zoey ran after the younger pokémon. After a second of being surprised, Cid quickly followed the two female pokémon. Luckily for him, he didn't have to run very far or else he would have had trouble catching up with his tiny legs. It turned out that the thing which caught Snivy's attention was some kind of blue, round thing.

"Look at this! It's a Petrify Orb!" She held the item up proudly. However, Cid could see that Zoey was not as enthusiastic about the found object.

"What part of stay with me didn't you understand?" Zoey growled at the smaller pokémon. For her part, Snivy didn't look at all bothered. She had a smile on her face when she looked over to the angry normal-type.

"Come on, I didn't run that far. Besides, look what I found!" Snivy held the Petrify Orb over to Zoey.

"Yeah, you found an ambush!" The eevee shouted like she wanted to get the attention of someone else. Before any of the two children could ask what that had been all about, they both heard the sounds of nearby bushes rustling. To the surprise of both children, two furfrous stepped out of those bushes, both looking agitated, yet at the same time confused.

"W-w-waah!" Snivy exclaimed in shock. "Where did they come from?!"

("They were hiding in the bushes! This really looks like an ambush!") Cid thought to himself, panicking.

"Hey! How did you know we were hiding here?" One of the furfrous asked.

"Eh… ever heard of the term bathing?" Zoey asked with a tilted head, before putting a paw in front of her nose. "'Because I could smell you three miles against the wind."

"Snrk." Snivy held both paws in front of her mouth in order to suppress a laugh that threatened to escape.

"Are you saying what I think you're saying?" the second furfrou growled.

In response, Zoey just gave the pokémon that had spoken to her a deadpan stare. "Wow, how many brain cells did it cost you to figure this one out?" Apparently, that ticked the two pokémon off. The dog-like pokémon snarled at Zoey and began charging at their fellow normal-type. Snivy and Cid automatically took each a step back, getting very close to Zoey in the process. The eevee couldn't help but roll her eyes. She quickly snatched the Petrify Orb from Snivy and activated it.

While Zoey never figured out how they actually worked, she at least remembered how to use one. Quickly she snatched the orb out of Snivy's paw and activated the tiny button built inside, by pressing the entire blue orb into the ground. The result was two white "sparks" escaping the blue item and hitting each of the furfrous in mid-charge. This resulted in the two pokémon awkwardly falling to the ground. One had all of its four paws outstretched as he landed in the grass, while the other one looked like he was halfway done curling up into a ball.

The bodies of the two pokémon skidded across the ground until they came to a halt right in front of Cid and Snivy respectively.

"Wow, so this is what happens when you use a Petrify Orb," Snivy said while looking down on the twitching furfrou in front of her. Cid was less curious as to how the orb worked. Instead, he was more interested in getting some distance between himself and the shivering furfrou. Ignoring the children for the moment, Zoey got herself into position and shot a shadow ball at each of her opponents. As soon as the balls connected with the bodies of the two furfrous, the effect of the Petrify Orb was canceled. But that didn't mean anything. The two enemy pokémon got sent flying across the woods and when their bodies hit the ground. Neither got up afterward.

"Wow…" Snivy breathed out. "You took them out with just one attack each," she spoke in awe.

"And you're going to be my next target, if you plan on leaving my side again," Zoey growled dangerously. The two kids spun around and found the aforementioned eevee glaring at the grass-type, who in return felt a bead of sweat rolling down the back of her head.

"I...uh… I'm sorry?"

Everyone present could tell that Zoey wasn't buying it. However, instead of berating the child, the adult let out a sigh and gave the child a light push. "Look, that's exactly why I want you to stay close to me. Don't do it again and we won't have any trouble."

"Alright." Snivy nodded, letting out a sigh of relief, as she was not getting shouted at.

"Still, that was a pretty dumb idea of theirs. Setting up an ambush by using a Petrify Orb." Zoey couldn't help but laugh at the stupidity of the two furfrous, while walking through the forest, Snivy at Cid once again at her sides. While they were walking, Cid had a question for his caretaker.

"Uh… Zoey?"

"Yeah?" she looked down on the former human.

"How did you know those two were waiting for us? Did you really smell them?" he asked.

In response, she scrunched up her face. "I can still smell them."

"Say what?!" Cid explained in disbelief. "It wasn't a joke."

"Nope." The eevee shook her head. "Us eevees belong to the family of fox-pokémon. Fox- and dog-pokémon have excellent noses. Though there are a lot of times, I wish I would have ended up as a charmander or a bulbasaur."

"Why's that?" Snivy asked curiously. "I wish I could have a nose like yours."

"You don't," Zoey deadpanned. "Do you know how it is to smell every single rotten fruit in a two-mile radius? Not to mention how every single scent just mashes together sometimes, making it not only hard to distinguish what is what, but it turns out to be actually worse than the school toilets back at home, something I always thought to be impossible."

Cid felt a shudder running down his spine. Despite not being able to remember much of his previous life, his body was instinctively reacting to the prospect of going into a school bathroom.

"Come on, it can't be that bad," Snivy argued. "I mean, you can use your nose and see if someone is hiding behind a tree."

"Well, it's not bad all the time," Zoey conceded. "It really depends on where you're at the time and how the weather is. Summer is surprisingly annoying what with everyone sweating bullets all the time."

"Okay, I think I get you." The young grass-type imagined for a brief moment smelling everyone's sweat and it was not a pleasant imagination.

"So, do you smell any other pokémon at the moment?" Cid asked with a weary voice.

"All the time," Zoey replied with a wave of her paw. She was particularly looking up a specific tree. Snivy and Cid followed her gaze, but couldn't see anyone sitting in the branches. "Smelling something isn't hard. The tough part is to tell how close a pokémon is, where they are, where they have been and so and so forth. The only reason I could even tell what those two had planned was because they really need a bath."

Snivy snorted at those words.

"Wait! Does that mean you can sniff out Goomy in this forest?!" the young cyndaquil exclaimed. Snivy's eyes widened in realization. "Hey, that's right! With your nose finding Goomy should be a breeze!"

But to the dismay of the two children, Zoey shook her head, a sad expression on her face. "I'm not that good with distinguishing smells, especially not from an unknown distance. Besides, I haven't even met a goomy before. I don't know how they smell."

"Oh…" The two children looked down at their feet, disappointed.

"Hey, come on you two." Zoey tapped each of the children lightly on the head. "Goomy won't find herself in this forest. Let's go."

Without even looking, the adult went ahead, expecting the two children to follow her. Said children looked at each other briefly, before following.

("Zoey is powerful.") Cid mentally noted. ("She just knocked out those two pokémon like it was nothing for her.")

There was no distinctive path to follow in the Foreboding Forest, so Zoey tried to remember the way she walked by looking out for visual clues. Those could be an odd looking branch, a fallen tree, roots sticking out of the ground or even a tree that just happened to be taller than the others. One such visual clue turned out to be a rock that was grown over with moss. However, the stone wasn't really what interested Zoey, but rather the pokémon sitting on the rock. It was a Taillow and as soon as it saw the group, it attacked.

Originally Zoey had opened her mouth to speak to the pokémon, however seeing as the flying-type was on the attack, she figured, she might as well charge a shadow ball. Before she could adequately execute the attack, a set of green vines flew past her and snatched the taillow's wings. Zoey slowly closed her mouth and watched with interest, as the flying-type crashed to the ground.

"ARGH! Let go you little-AAAAAAHHH!" Before the enemy pokémon could say whatever she, the voice indicated it was a she, had to say, Snivy lifted the Flying-type into the sky and with a "fierce" (read cute) battlecry she turned her entire body around. With Taillow still being tied up to the vines, she got smashed into a nearby tree, letting out a scream of pain.

"Not bad. So much for type advantage," Zoey praised Snivy, who looked quite proud of herself.

"Hehe, no flying-type can keep up with me," the grass-type proclaimed.

"Grrrr!" To this day Zoey still wasn't sure how a bird was able to growl with just a beak.

"Oh oh…" she heard Cid mumble beside her.

"You'll pay for that!" the female taillow shouted and charged directly at Snivy. Once again the grass-type tried to intercept the oncoming attack, only this time Taillow was prepared and dodged the attack mid-flight. Not wanting to endanger the children unnecessarily, Zoey executed a Quick Attack and met the flying-type midway. Being the stronger pokémon, the eevee managed to send the taillow flying the way it came. The bird-like pokémon hit the ground and didn't look like she would get up anytime soon.

"Wow! You took her out in just one hit!" Snivy exclaimed

"Ow…." Taillow moaned, her eyes seemingly turning into swirls.

"Is she okay?" Cid asked with worry in his voice.

"She'll be fine. Pokémon living in the wild are tough. Taillows especially are usually hard to keep down for longer than five minutes," the normal-type explained. "Come on."

The forest became denser from this point onward. More often than not either Cid or Snivy needed to leave Zoey's side for a brief moment in order to wander around a tree or two. Sometimes a couple of bushes would get in their way. Cid and Snivy always went around them, while Zoey walked straight through them, not minding all the leaves, branches and occasionally small berries getting stuck on her fur. She made a mental note to take a quick bath later.

As it just so happened the trio of pokémon made it towards a clearing, however, they weren't alone. A flock of Spritzees was resting in the nearby trees, some even down at the ground. The fairy-types were eagerly chatting with each other, talking about all kinds of things. The trio could make out things like the weather, preferred flying routes, an annoying Stunky bothering someone and much more. All of the conversations came to a stop when the flock noticed the newcomers.

Cid and Snivy immediately tensed up, when they saw just how many pokémon were in the clearing.

"Th-th-that's a lot of flying-types…" Snivy stuttered, getting nervous.

"Fairy-types," Zoey corrected almost automatically.

"M-m-m-maybe we should go?" Cid offered, hiding behind the normal-type.

"What's up?" Zoey greeted the flock with a lazy salute. "We're looking for a little kid, a Goomy who is lost in this forest. Did you happen to see her?" the normal-type asked the flock.

The fairy-types looked at each other for a couple of seconds, some of them quietly murmuring to each other.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Snivy whispered to Zoey.

"Asking questions never hurt anyone," the normal-type whispered back.

"You're looking for a goomy?" one of the spritzees asked. This one was sitting on a high branch.

"Yep," Zoey nodded.

"Are you an exploration team?" another one, sitting on the ground.

"Nope," Zoey shook her head. "We just heard a goomy got lost here and decided to help."

("Exploration Team?") Cid repeated inside his mind.

"If you're not an exploration team, why are you helping another pokémon?" one of the younger fairy-types asked.

"Because it's the right thing to do," Zoey spoke in a deadpan tone. "Why would I need to be part of an exploration team to help other pokémon?" she asked.

"You're weird," a spritzee commented.

"Hey, that's not nice," Snivy spoke to the fairy-type who made that comment. "Why do you want to know if we're part of an exploration team anyways?" the grass-type asked.

"Duh! Now we know you're easy pickings!" As if on cue, every single spritzee got airborne and headed straight for the trio of pokémon. Cid and Snivy screamed in panic and tried to run away. In the process, the two stumbled over each other's feet and landed on the ground. The two turned their heads and could only stare in horror at the oncoming fairy-types.

Zoey in the meantime was less than impressed. ("A hundred weak pokémon are still a hundred weak pokémon.") she thought to herself.

"GET LOST!" she shouted on top of her lungs. Her voice echoed throughout the entire forest and all of the sudden the incoming spritzees got hit by an invisible blast. Out of control, the fairy-types got thrown into the opposite direction, hitting trees, branches and whatever was on the ground in the process. A multitude of moans and groans could be heard throughout the clearing. The grass and fire-type had their jaws on the ground, as they watched their savior walking up towards one of the wannabe attackers and whispering something to him or her.

"I'm not part of an exploration team," Zoey whispered, discreetly showing off the badge under her scarf. Spritzee's eyes widened in shock when she saw the golden badge under it. "I am part of a rescue team," the eevee clarified, still whispering. "My name is Zoey and I'm the leader of Team Stardust. And trust me, you don't want to get on my bad side."

Having said her piece, the former female human turned around and casually trotted back to the two kids. She couldn't suppress the self-satisfactory smirk that formed across her mouth when she saw how the two children were staring at her awestruck. She stopped right in front of them and helped them to get up from the ground. Once Snivy was back on her own two feet, she immediately started prancing around Zoey.

"Wow! That was awesome! What was that?! How did you do that?! I mean one moment they were- and the other you were- mmmmph!"

"Easy there, kiddo." The normal-type had put her paw on the Grass-type's mouth, already seeing how long this rant was going to be. "That was my Echoing Voice attack. It hurts more the more I use it. My throat included," the adult explained, after which she took her paw out. "It's nothing special, really."

"Nothing special!?" Both children shouted in disbelief.

"You just took out ALL of those pokémon like it was nothing!" Snivy exclaimed.

"Eh… they weren't expecting that attack. I just took them off guard."

Multiple groans could be heard in the background, as the bird-like fairy-types tried to get away, emphasize on they tried. Some of them managed to roll around by pushing themselves of said ground with their tiny wings.

"No way, I don't believe this!" Snivy shouted. "You are like super strong!"

"Hehe, thanks. Anyways, let's forget about these guys-"

"Nuh-uh!" The grass-type interrupted the normal-type. "I wanna know! I wanna know! How did you get so strong? Where did you learn that attack? Can I learn that attack?"

While Zoey found herself bombarded with questions by the young grass-type, Cid was still staring at all of the fairy-types trying to pick each other up.

("She… she did all of this with just her voice.") The former human thought to himself. ("She doesn't even look she brought a sweat. Come to think of it, Zoey did manage to hold her own against those three Beheeyem.")

"Do you fight a lot?" Cid asked aloud, perfectly interrupting whatever Zoey and Snivy had been talking about. The question visibly caught the eevee off guard and she needed a moment to gather her thoughts.

"Often? Well… it depends, really."

"Depends?" the fire-type echoed. "On what?"

"Er…" the adult looked to the side. "Mostly whether the pokémon in the area are aggressive or not. I wander around a lot, so I see lots of different places and meet lots of different pokémon. And as you have just seen, not all of them are nice."

Zoey looked over to the "monster room" she cleared so quickly.

"Wow! You sound you're an explorer!" Snivy exclaimed, hopping up and down excitedly.

"Haha, I guess you can say that. But I'm not part of a guild or something." Her smile turned into a thrown all of a sudden. "Those chumps always demand 90% of the money you make from doing exploration jobs. Anyway, I'm more a traveler who wants to see the world. I do the occasional odd job here and there. From time to time I do help out exploration teams, that's true."

"Wow…" Snivy's eyes appeared to be shining like pearls bathed in the sunlight. "That's so awesome…"

("That's the same way Caterpie looked at me after Pikachu and I saved him. Hm, I wonder how the little guy is doing.")

"Anyways, we really need to get back on track. Goomy is still missing and the longer we stand around and do nothing, the higher the risk is that Goomy wanders into some… uncomfortable company."

Being reminded that there was a pokémon out there the trio was out to safe, the two children put their curiosity about Zoey's strength aside, though they certainly did not forget about it. In fact, for the rest of their trip, it would be on the two children's minds. Luckily they didn't encounter anymore pokémon on the way, aside from the one they were looking for. It happened a couple of minutes after their encounter with the flock of spritzees. Zoey, all of the sudden, stopped, holding her paw up.

"What is it?" Snivy asked, looking up curiously.

Instead of answering directly, Zoey started to sniff the air, her face hardening.

"Do you smell something?" Cid asked curiously.

"Something...maybe someone…" Zoey said more to herself than to the others. "Get ready. I smell something just up ahead. It could be another pokémon ready to attack us."

After hearing, this Cid immediately became antsy, while Snivy started rubbing his paws. "Cool! There's this one attack I've wanted to try out for some time."

Zoey and Cid gave Snivy a look. The normal-type shrugged after a moment and walked ahead. "Wait until I give you the ok. We don't know what we're up against. With any luck, it will be something that can actually put up a fight…" Zoey muttered the last part to herself, not realizing that the children were close enough to hear her small complaint. None of the two found the opportunity to question her, however, as the normal-type walked ahead at quite the pace. The two other pokémon followed as quickly as they could until they finally were by Zoey's side once again.

Zoey didn't stop walking until the pokémon she had sniffed out came into sight. Her stance relaxed immediately when she saw that it was a goomy standing in the middle of a clearing, right next to a… piece of paper?

"Goomy!" Snivy exclaimed

"Ah!" The Goomy let out a shriek and wobbled backward, cowering in fear. She didn't even look up to the new arrivals, else she would have noticed that one of the pokémon was her classmate.

"Hey, don't worry Goomy. It's me, Snivy." The grass-type walked right in front of her classmate, as she spoke. Carefully, very carefully, Goomy opened one of her eyes.

"H-huh? S-snivy?" Goomy whispered hopefully. "Is that really you?"

"Sure, it's me! Who else would I be?" Snivy asked sarcastically.

"W-why are you here?" the dragon-type asked.

"Silly, we're here to help you," Zoey said and made her presence known.

"What?" Goomy looked past her classmate and finally noticed the two other pokémon. One was apparently a child around her age, a cyndaquil. It was curiously looking at the paper Pancham had prepared for her to write her name on. The other pokémon, an eevee, who looked like she was an adult. She was approaching Goomy slowly, with a kind smile plastered on her face.

"Really? You- You're here to help me? Oh… oooohhhh… WAHAAAAAAAAAAAAA! I was so scared!"

The floodgates were opened and Goomy started crying a metaphorical river in front of the trio. Zoey came closer to the dragon-type and slowly wrapped her legs around the child, before pressing Goomy against her fur. Said fur got covered in sticky slime, but the former human ignored this little inconvenience for the sake of comforting the child.

"Shh, shh, there, there. Everything is going to be alright." Zoey spoke in a comforting tone, while slowly rubbing circles around Goomy's back.

"Wow. It must have taken her a lot of courage to come all the way here on her own," Cid said to Snivy.

"Yeah, you're right. I didn't know Goomy is so tough." Snivy, all of the sudden, had found something admirable about her classmate. "I gotta step up my game or else she's gonna show me up in front of the entire class!"

"Uh… sure…"

Cid returned his attention towards the piece of paper lying on the ground, on which the name "Goomy" was spelled out in shaky writing. The former human didn't notice it earlier, but the letters the pokémon used were actually footprints. He had no idea how he could read those things, but he accepted the convenience nevertheless. Just like he accepted the convenience of Zoey saving him and believing him that he was a human… he just noticed how convenient everything was, given the kind of situation he was in.

"What's this?" Snivy asked, coming up right next to the cyndaquil. "Huh? A piece of paper? And something's written on it. Goomy?" The grass-type looked over at her classmate in wonder. "Did she write this? Why?"

"I don't know," Cid replied. "Should we take it with us?"

"I guess it can't hurt," Snivy shrugged and rolled the paper up, before stuffing it under her small arm. The two children then turned to Zoey, who was still comforting the shivering Goomy. The dragon-type wasn't crying anymore, but muffled sobs could be still heard coming from the young pokémon.

"Don't worry, sweetie. I will bring you home," the eevee cooed, allowing the girl to soak her fur with tears and a little bit of slime.

XXX

It took a little while for Goomy to calm down. When she did, the four pokémon started to make the journey back to the forest's entrance. Goomy herself walked so close to Zoey that she was at all times touching the normal-type's leg. Cid and Snivy were walking on Zoey's other side with Cid looking not so good anymore.

"Hey, are you alright?" Snivy asked the fire-type, seeing him wobble a little on his feet. In response, Cid let out a hearty yawn.

"Sorry," he mumbled. "I'm feeling kind of tired."

"Oh."

"That's no surprise," Zoey spoke up. "We were wandering all day yesterday, plus the time it took us to arrive in Serene Village. Wait a minute, guys. Let's stop for just a second."

Everybody did as they were told, looking curiously over to the adult pokémon. Zoey took off her bag and started rummaging through it. "Good thing I bothered to go to the Kecleon Shop. Here we go." The former female human tossed three apples out of the bag, each fruit landing perfectly in front of one of the children.

"Apples?" Goomy wondered out loud.

"Yeah," Zoey took out a clear gummi for herself, handling it in her right paw. "It won't do any of us any good if you pass out from hunger now. Eat up kids."

"Wow, thanks!" Snivy exclaimed and started munching on her apple. Cid wordlessly followed, his stomach feeling considerably empty right now.

"Um… thank you very much, madam," Goomy thanked the adult.

"Oh right, I never told you my name," Zoey realized and put a paw on her forehead. "I'm Zoey. And the little guy over here," she gestured over to the cyndaquil "is Cid. And you already know Snivy."

Goomy nodded. "Thank you again," she mumbled.

"No problem." Zoey gave the dragon-type a light pat on the head. "You're probably exhausted too after today, right?"

"Mhm." Goomy nodded again and slowly started eating the fruit she had been given. Zoey herself quickly munched down the gummi she got for herself.

("Not sure if this is supposed to increase my IQ, but it's way tastier than I remember. I knew I should have gotten more than just one of those.")

While the children were busy eating their food, Zoey kept an eye out for any pokémon that might get some ideas. However, while she definitely smelled other pokémon, none of them bothered coming out of their hiding places. There was a good chance they had heard about the little stunt she pulled of earlier with all the spritzees and were now actively avoiding her. Zoey was okay with that. It was fairly obvious that none of the local pokémon stood a chance against her in battle. It was still a little weird to her. Her last real fight had been years ago and yet here she was just as strong, if not stronger before she faced Rayquaza. She could only guess the reason she was in peak physical condition, was due to Arceus somehow interfering. Who knew what limits this pokémon really had?

"Ah, that was good!" Snivy exclaimed, rubbing over her belly.

"I feel much better," Goomy agreed.

Cid merely nodded and looked satisfied. Zoey gave each of the children a once over, before nodding in satisfaction. "Alright, then let's get out of here. It's getting late already and the last thing we want to have is your parents chewing all of us out. Let's go."

XXX

Zoey was actually surprised to see that Pancham, Shelmet and Deerling were still waiting for all of them at the entrance of the forest. She at least expected the two bullies to high-tail out once Snivy, Cid and she disappeared into the forest.

"Y-you actually made it back?!" Pancham shouted surprised. However, he immediately shut his own trap, once he saw Zoey giving him and Shelmet the stink eye. She walked towards the two children, who both involuntarily took a step backward.

"Now then, you two, give me one good reason why I shouldn't tell your parents about what happened today."

"W-WHAAAT?!" The small Fighting-type exclaimed.

"Y-you can't do that! Our parents will get super mad at us," the bug-type whimpered.

"Not as mad as I am right now!" Zoey shouted.

"Aaahhh!" The two children quickly huddled together, quivering in fear.

"P-please don't hurt us! It was just a joke!" Pancham cried.

"A joke that almost got your classmate injured!" Zoey shouted even louder. "Think about it! If I hadn't shown up, what do you think would have happened to Goomy?! We met some nasty pokémon in there, who don't care whether they're hurting children or not! What do you think would have happened?!"

"AAAAAAAHHHH! We're sorry!" Shelmet wailed, tears streaming down his face.

"Are you really?" Zoey scoffed, her voice toning down a little. She lowered her head so that she could look each of the two children directly into the eyes. "Listen closely, you two. If you're really sorry, you won't pull off any more stunts like that. As long as you two can restrain yourselves, I just might forget this ever happened."

"H-huh? R-really?" Pancham asked, a bit of hope entering his voice.

"However!"

"Aaah!"

"If I do here you two doing something like this again, your parents will be the least of your worries, understood?! Now, get lost!"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Pancham and Shelmet ran like Darkrai himself was chasing after them. Zoey watched them go for a while until they were out of eyesight. Turning around, she found that the other four kids were looking at her with a clear mixture of fear and ever so slight respect. Deerling quickly managed to catch herself and cleared her throat, getting everyone's attention.

"I am truly sorry about them, miss. Those two tend to overdo it from time to time," Deerling explained, to which Zoey let out another scoff.

"Don't apologize for them," the adult told the child and turned her head towards Goomy, who was still shaking a little. "Kids like them need a metaphorical slap in the face to get that what they're doing is wrong."

"Meta...what now?" Snivy asked.

"Metaphorical. Symbolic speech, like "overwhelmed with joy" or "you're the light of my life." Or in my case, instead of slapping those two" Zoey gestured with her head where the other two children had run of to "I shouted at them so loud, I might as well have hit them."

"Uh...okay?" It was clear that Snivy didn't get the explanation. Deerling looked like she had some kind of idea, as well as Cid, but Goomy appeared to be lost too.

"Anyways, we better get Goomy home. If my internal clock is correct, the sun will set relatively soon."

Hearing this, Deerling immediately walked up to Goomy. "I can bring Goomy home if that's alright."

"Is it alright with you?" Zoey asked Goomy, who nodded.

"Y-yes. Thank you again, Miss Zoey."

"Heh, you're welcome, kid. Now go home. And don't listen to anything those two say. It's not worth the trouble."

After saying goodbye one more time, Deerling and Goomy headed back to Serene village. Once they were gone, Snivy stretched out her arms and let out a cry of joy.

"Woooheee! Now that's what I call an adventure! That was totally awesome!"

Cid didn't agree but didn't outright disagree either. "I'm just glad Goomy is safe."

"Yeah," Zoey let out a sigh. "It is sad, really. That those pokémon in there are ready to attack children for no apparent reason." ("Then again, humans are still way worse.") "Let's go back to village. I have a ton of letters to write until morning, plus I really need a bath. Wasn't there a river nearby?"

"You're going to bath in a cold river?" Snivy asked in disbelief.

"Cold? Have you ever gotten hit with an ice beam head on? That's cold."

So after getting herself cleaned with a five-minute bath in the river, Zoey escorted the two children back to the village. Snivy was jumping up and down in joy all the time, saying how awesome of an adventure she had had. As soon as they arrived at the village, the sun had already started setting, just like Zoey had predicted, Snivy announced: "I better get home to pops. He tends to get really cranky when I'm late for dinner. Thank you for taking you with me today, miss."

"Thank you for helping out today. Me and Cid will be around town for some time, so see you another time."

"Definitely." Snivy turned her attention to Cid. "I had fun today! We have to do that again sometime! See ya!" And before Cid could give a reply, Snivy was gone. Cid looked after her for a second, before he felt the need to yawn again.

"Oh dear," Zoey gave the former human a pat on the back. "How about you hit the hay early today? You have been through a lot these past two days."

"Mhm." Cid nodded, leaning himself against the normal-type. Zoey guided the child all the way back to the café. The adult led her charge up some stairs onto a second floor, where there were three doors lined up in a hallway. Two of those doors led to rooms for potential guests and the last was occupied by the owner and her child. Zoey opened Cid into the first room, closest to the stairs. The room itself was nothing special. Two straw beds, two buckets filled with fresh water, a desk with two chairs in front of the window, some plants for decoration and finally a map of Serene Village and the overall area was hanging from the wall.

"We'll be staying here for the time being," Zoey explained to the fire-type, who obviously had trouble staying awake, yet somehow managed to pull it off. "Kangaskhan told me a few things before you showed up. One of those things she told me about is that there's a school in this village. Now, I know from personal experience school isn't the nicest place to be, but I thought you should give it a shot. Even if we don't stay here forever, it would be a good idea for you to learn a little bit about this world."

("I guess I can't really argue with that logic.") Cid thought to himself.

"Another important thing is that there is a police station a little outside the village. After I dropped you off at school tomorrow, I'm gonna head there immediately and tell the sheriffs about the Beheeyem. The faster we can get them locked up, the better."

Cid involuntary shuddered at the mention of those three pokémon. He didn't want to imagine what would have happened if Zoey didn't show up.

"Now then, let's get you to bed."

The adult pokémon took herself the liberty to properly tuck the cyndaquil into the straw bed. By the time she was done, the young child was already fast asleep. As she stood there above the small, fragile pokémon and former human, Zoey could only shake her head.

"What the fuck were you thinking, Arceus? When I get my hands on you, I'm gonna give you the beatdown of your eternal life." The normal-type let out a sigh. "I better get back to those letters. Writing with your mouth isn't exactly easy. Damn it, Arceus, why am I not a psychic type? Or something with hands?"

With that being said, Zoey sneaked out of the room she rented for herself and Cid, closing the door as silently as possible.


End file.
